Because they had sinned against God, the Creator had banned Adam and Eve from Paradise.

Every morning, Adam awoke with an agonizing sense of bewilderment. “Why did we disobey God?” he asked Eve.

“It all began when I listened to that serpent,” Eve recalled. “He convinced me to eat fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and our disobedience brought God’s
punishment.”

“When you gave the fruit to me, I should have thrown it away, but I didn’t,” Adam said.

Like Adam, Eve sustained a sense of continued loss. “We’ll never again walk with God in the cool of the day,” she moaned.

“That’s the worst part of not being in Paradise,” Adam agreed.

“We’ll never feel that same divine touch in exactly the way,” Eve said.

During Eve’s waking hours, she often wept silently. The birth of Cain, followed by Abel’s arrival, however, somewhat relieved her mental anguish.

The years passed swiftly, and Cain and Abel became young adults. We’re told in Genesis 4:2, “And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.”

Both siblings brought offerings unto the Lord, but only one of the offerings was accepted. The story continues in Genesis chapter 4, “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain
brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto theLord.And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And
the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.”

Dejected because his offering was rejected, Cain became upset. Later, the brothers were conversing in the field. Cain may have been challenging his brother. There may have been an argument.
We are told in no uncertain terms, “Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.” In today’s world, we could possibly call Cain’s crime “The World’s First First Degree Murder.”

In Genesis chapter six, the world’s situation had decayed to the point that God’s Word says, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

God sent a worldwide flood to destroy man from the earth, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Through Noah’s obedience in building the ark, he and his family were
saved.

Many centuries later, through the shedding of the innocent blood of Jesus Christ, mankind once again found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And the appearance of each rainbow holds the renewed
promise that never again will God destroy the world by the waters of a flood.